The Gravity of the Situation
by KarmaHope
Summary: Uraraka Ochako wants many things: To help her parents. To stand with the top students in her class. To get over her crush on Deku. To be a hero. (Or: Horikoshi refuses to give Ochako the arc she deserves so I gotta do it for him)
1. The Sports Festival

**The Gravity of the Situation  
** Karmahope

It was too quiet.

Her ears rang with the echoes of the crowd's roar in the silence of the waiting room. The sweat trickling down her brow from the heat of the battle served as a stark contrast to the chill of the metal chair beneath her. Her cellphone clutched in one hand, she lifted the other and watched as it trembled violently in the otherwise still air. Pink pads on dainty fingertips danced before her eyes, taunting her mercilessly.

With a brittle sigh, Ochako clenched her fist and pressed her forehead into the heel of her hand, her elbow propped up on the table in front of her. She fought to keep her breathing under control, but it was just as much a losing battle as the one out in the ring had been. The stillness of the waiting room shattered into breathy sobs.

She had _lost_.

Her stomach churned angrily. She didn't even have the chance to really use her quirk – why was she feeling this nauseous? She swallowed hard as her thoughts drifted back to the match she just came out of.

Todoroki stood before her. His hands hung down by his sides, palms out. He was prepared, but overall relaxed and utterly unconcerned. She remembered analyzing her surroundings. What had there been for her to use? The answer: not much. The ring was smooth and whole, and unlike her match with Bakugou the year before, it would stay that way. Todoroki's quirk wasn't as inherently destructive as Bakugou's, and he wouldn't give her the same rubble ammunition that Bakugou had. She could try using ice shards instead, but since he could melt them, it wouldn't be effective

That left her with only herself and Gunhead's martial arts training; that was, if she could get close enough to Todoroki to engage him in hand-to-hand combat. She _had_ to get close enough. It was her only shot.

Bracing herself, she ran forward.

A sheet of ice shot toward her. Instead of changing course, Ochako tapped herself lightly and jumped, her quirk negating gravity's effect. Like the world's best long jumper, she sailed over the ice toward her opponent–

–Only to shriek and release herself as a fiery jet rocketed her way. She dropped like a rock, the lingering stench of burning hair a testament to how close she'd been to getting charbroiled.

Her remaining momentum carried her forward until she was close enough to land a flying kick as she came down. Todoroki brushed it aside easily, but she hadn't been deterred. In her fall, she managed to pick up some ice shards with her quirk. She hadn't known what to do with them at that point, but it was something

All she needed to do was get her hand on him to negate his gravity and throw him out of the ring!

But he knew this just as well as she did. Not a second later, a thick pillar of ice pummeled her full in the stomach. She was too close to get out of the way in time. It lifted her off her feet and flung her toward the edge of the rink. She released the collected ice shards in one last desperate strike, but a whoosh of flames rendered them harmless.

The buzzer went off. The match was done. In the end, it hadn't even lasted a full minute and a half.

There in the waiting room, Ochako's stomach lurched again. What a disgrace. She hadn't even been able to use her quirk to demonstrate a landing – as soon as she crossed the boundary, the pillar had turned into a gentle slide to let her down to the ground. Todoroki was serious about the Sports Festival and wasn't one to take it easy on her, but he cared about his friends.

As much as Ochako appreciated the gesture, it burned a little. She knew she had improved since last year's Sports Festival – in which she had nearly defeated _Bakugou_ – and she had wanted so badly to do well this year.

A minute and a half.

At least her friends left her well enough alone as she trudged back to the waiting room. She remembered Deku had stopped in to visit her last year. It was sweet of him, but this time she didn't think she could fake the cheerfulness she would want him to see. Knowing Deku, he already knew that, and it was the very reason he was staying away.

She hadn't even called her parents yet, still clutching her phone like a lifeline.

She should do that.

Her fingers dialed the number from muscle memory. The ring of the phone was uncomfortably loud in her ear, but it didn't last long. One of her parents picked up before it could ring again.

"Sweetheart? Oh, Ochako, honey!"

Was that dismay in her mother's voice? It was. It had to be. But pity wasn't what she wanted right now. She didn't know what she wanted, but pity wasn't it.

"Mom," Ochako said, "I–"

She cut off mid-sentence as her throat closed up on her. Dammit, she thought she had already cried herself out! The telltale trickle down her cheeks said otherwise, and once again she fought to keep her breathing even.

"Hush, sweetie," her mother said. "It's gonna be alright. Your Pa an' I are incredibly proud 'a ya, an' don'tcha forget it."

Ochako swallowed hard and took a deep breath that shook a little. Even her mother, who had no hero training, could tell that the fight hadn't gone well. What on Earth must her friends think? Her teachers? The _scouts?_ A fire fueled by resentment and frustration burned bright in her chest.

There was a long stretch of sob-broken silence as she tried to pull herself together. As much as she wanted to laugh her mother off, wanted to feign a confidence she didn't feel, she found herself asking, "… Why?"

Her mother went quiet on the other end of the line. "Whaddaya mean, 'why'?" she asked. "Why wha'?"

"Why're you proud 'a me?" Ochako asked, her voice barely audible through her tears. "I didn' do well at all! I did even worse 'n last year even though I've worked so hard t' get better an' I was so _sure_ I'd be able t' advance this year …"

In her distress, she slipped into the local Kansai dialect her parents used, losing the neutral Tokyo accent she had fought so hard to cultivate over the years. She let it happen; she didn't need to keep up appearances with her parents.

"Ochako." Her mother's tone was razor sharp. "Don' you dare go puttin' yourself down like tha' – she's askin' me why we're proud 'a her, that's what!"

The last part was muffled, as though she were talking to someone beside her instead. There was soft clunking over the line as the phone changed hands, and suddenly it was her father on the other end instead.

"Ochako, hon. I know 's hard right now, but this isn' the end 'a the world. 'S not even the end 'a the line."

Ochako burst into a fresh wave of sobs at the sound of her father's voice. "My match lasted a minute an' a half, Pa. Nine'y seconds an' I was done. I didn' even get a good hit in, let alone use my quirk! I was jus' an … annoying _fly_ or somethin'! What scouter's gonna wan' a fly?"

"But ya didn' fly las' year," her Pa said, stopping her short. "Ya might not 'a used your quirk much but ya used it differently 'n las' year, didn'tcha?"

Ochako blinked back tears as she considered his words. She loved her Ma to pieces, but her Pa was the one who always managed to say what it was she needed to hear. She tried to pull herself together once again.

"Yeah, you're right," she conceded once she felt like she could speak. "I did do somethin' new, didn' I?"

"Yeah ya did!" her Pa enthused. "It was all like, whoosh there she goes! That's our li'l girl flyin' 'cross tha' field! An' the way ya dodged tha' fire was amazin'. You're doin' fine, Ochako. And like your Ma said, 's not the end 'a the line. Ya still got one more year, right?"

Ochako smiled. "Yeah, I do."

"Then knock 'em dead next year, hon. T' world just doesn' know wha' Uravity's got in store for 'em yet."

* * *

Bolstered by her parents' words, Ochako took a walk around the stadium and pulled herself together in time to see the last of the preliminary matches. Climbing the stands to where her friends sat, she looked down to see Kirishima facing off against Kendou Itsuka from class 2-B. Although he couldn't hear her, she sent a silent word of encouragement his way.

"Ochako!"

Ochako turned to see Tsuyu waving at her from a couple rows up. Beside her, Mina grinned and patted the open seat on her other side. The rest of the class was clustered in the same area, save for those who either just fought or were up next. Her heart lifted at the sight of them.

"Hey guys," she said when she got close, waving a little. "Sorry it took me so long to get back up here! I got a little distracted." The giggle that followed wasn't quite natural, but it wasn't quite forced, either.

Tsuyu hit her with a flying tackle hug. Ochako shrieked and a real laugh escaped her as she braced herself to keep them both from falling down the stands. She squeezed her friend tight, then put her down.

"What was that for?" she asked, grinning.

Tsuyu shrugged. "You looked like you needed it, ribbit. I have to go – my match is next – but I wanted to see you before I went."

"Oh yeah, that's right!" Tsuyu won her match against Ojirou, and her next match was against … Bakugou. Yikes. "Good luck!"

"Thanks," Tsuyu said as she turned to leave. "I'll need it, ribbit."

Ochako took Tsuyu's seat next to Mina just in time to see Kendou bitch-slap Kirishima out of the ring. She winced. That had to hurt, but she didn't know who it hurt more. It was a hell of a slap, but Kirishima's quirk made him _sharp_.

"Aaand Kirishima Eijirou is OUT!" Present Mic's voice reverberated through the stadium. "Kendou Itsuka from Class 2-B moves on!"

She watched as Kendou helped Kirishima up, but a tap on her shoulder ripped her attention from the ring. She whipped around to meet mismatched eyes.

"Oh! Todoroki!" She sighed. "You startled me."

"Sorry," he said, not all that apologetically. "Are your ribs okay? I hit you pretty hard."

Ochako smiled. Despite her frustration with herself, she didn't harbor any hard feelings toward Todoroki. He had took the match seriously – took _her_ seriously. How could she complain about that when the alternative would have been for him to take pity on her and play with her a bit before taking her out? The answer: she couldn't.

"I'm fine! You sure knocked the wind out of me, but I didn't even need to see Recovery Girl!" She was bruised as all hell, but nothing was broken. If her injury started to hinder her performance in class over the next couple days, then she'd go to Recovery Girl. But only then.

The ghost of a smile crossed Todoroki's face. "That's good. I'm glad to hear it." He pushed himself to his feet. "Sorry to leave so abruptly, Uraraka, but I've got to go prepare for my next match as well."

Ochako wished him luck and turned back around to watch Tsuyu and Bakugou face off against each other. As much as she wanted Tsuyu to win, she knew Bakugou would come out on top in this one.

Which he did, although Tsuyu put up a good fight. Their classmates gasped as Bakugou helped Tsuyu to her feet and handed her off to the tournament medics, but Ochako just smiled. The boy had learned _some_ human decency in the last year, after all.

Up next was Todoroki versus Shiozaki Ibara, the girl from class 2-B with the vine quirk. Ochako didn't need Deku's analytical skills to know how that fight would turn out. Fire and vines were not a forgiving combination.

Actually, speaking of Deku, where _was_ he? Ochako said hello to him that morning, but then he ran off somewhere and she hadn't seen him for longer than a brief moment since. He apparently got into the battle tournament, and according to the bracket he won his match against Tokoyami. He was supposed to fight Mina next, but he was nowhere to be seen.

"Have you seen Deku?" she asked the girl in question. "You're supposed to be facing him after Todoroki's match, right?"

Mina shivered. "Don't remind me," she groaned. "But no, now that you mention it, I haven't. Kaminari? Iida? Have either of you seen Midoriya?"

"I saw him kick Tokoyami and Dark Shadow's collective _ass_ earlier," Kaminari said, "but no, I haven't seen him outside of the ring since this morning."

"This is most peculiar," Iida stated. "I am concerned for Midoriya's wellbeing. Should we look for him?"

Ochako hummed absently as she turned it over in her head. "Well, if Deku's hiding, it's probably because he doesn't want to see anyone," she said. "If he doesn't show up for Ashido's match, then we'll look for him. Sound good?"

Those around her murmured their assent, and she pushed it from her mind. Turned out, she didn't need to worry. Todoroki's match went much the way she thought it would, and Deku showed up for his match with Mina.

The Deku-Mina fight was more evenly matched than the Todoroki-Shiozaki fight, although that didn't necessarily mean much. Mina used a weak acid to her advantage in dodging and blocking Deku's attacks, and coated herself in a more corrosive acid that burned Deku's pant legs when he _did_ get hits in. Unfortunately, she wasn't a match for his pure strength. Deku walked away the winner.

"It's weird, though," Mina said as she rejoined them. "I feel like I did way better than I should have, knowing Midoriya."

"Do you think he went easy on you?" Kirishima asked. "That's not very manly of him."

Beside him, Bakugou scoffed and muttered something under his breath. Knowing Bakugou, Ochako ignored him.

"I … don't think so?" Ashido said.

Curiouser and curiouser. Deku hadn't joined them after his match with Ashido, either, and now Ochako was starting to worry. She'd go find him after this match. She would've gone sooner, but watching Kendou swat at Iida like one would an increasingly annoying fly was too funny.

As soon as Iida was declared the victor, Ochako excused herself to the bathroom and made her way down the stadium steps.

* * *

She found Deku huddled under a blanket in Recovery Girl's office. He stared back at her, clearly surprised to see her there. That stung a little. Had he honestly thought she wouldn't go looking for him?

"U-Uraraka!"

"Is this where you've been all day?" she asked as she closed the door behind her. "We've been worried about you!"

"Haha, yeah, sorry," Deku said, not quite meeting her eyes. "Um, you probably shouldn't come any closer."

Ochako stopped in her tracks. "What? Why? What's wrong? Are you okay?"

She cast a critical eye over her friend, taking note of the water bottle, tissue box, and wastebasket of discarded tissues she hadn't noticed at first glance. Taking a closer look at Deku, she saw he was paler than usual, the circles beneath his eyes more pronounced. The sheen of sweat covering his face glistened under the fluorescent light.

"You're sick." It wasn't a question.

"Yeah." Deku sneezed as if to drive the point home.

"Bless you."

"Uhg, thanks." He sniffed. "I noticed I was coming down with something a couple days ago, and I tried to stop it, but I woke up this morning with a splitting headache and an awful fever. I didn't think I was gonna be able to compete at all!"

Ochako perched on a chair in the corner of the small room. "Couldn't you just see Recovery Girl? You're in her office."

Deku laughed, but it devolved into a coughing fit. "I did," he said as soon as he was able. "I went to her first thing, but it turns out she's better with injuries than illnesses. She _can_ help illnesses, but it's apparently even more tiring. If she'd healed me entirely, I would have slept right through the Festival."

"And of course you couldn't do that," Ochako mused, more to herself than anything. "I get that. Hell" – she laughed – "I probably would've done the same thing! Could she help a little, at least?"

"Yeah," Deku said. "She helped with my headache and brought my fever down to a more manageable level. Other than that, though, it's been cold medicine and rest for me today."

"I guess it makes sense that you'd keep your distance from us today, if you didn't want to get us sick," Ochako said. "Oh! Should I tell the others? They're starting to worry as well."

"No!" Deku yelped, waving his hands at her. "I mean, I–I don't want them to worry about me. They should be enjoying the Festival!"

Once upon a time, Ochako would have taken him at his word; however, she'd been his best friend for over a year at this point. She could tell when he was hiding something from her. As she tried to figure out what it could be, her thoughts went back to the bracket lineup.

Ah. That was probably it. Her fist smacked her open palm.

"You're avoiding Bakugou, since at this point you could be facing him either in the final or the third place match," she declared. "You don't want him to know you're sick, because if he knows, he won't be satisfied with the results of the match no matter what happens. If he wins, he'll have only beaten you because you're not at the top of your game. If he loses, he'll have lost to you while you're not at the top of your game." Deku blinked at her, and she grew self-conscious. "Am I right?"

"Uh, yeah. That's, um, exactly it," he said. "Unless anything drastic happens, we're probably going to meet in the third place match. My reflexes aren't what they need to be in order to beat Iida right now, and Todoroki has a score to settle with Kacchan from last year."

Ochako nodded and changed the subject. Kind of. "So you think the final is going to come down to Iida and Todoroki? Who's going to win?"

"Iida," Deku said without hesitation. "It was a year ago today that his brother was attacked by Stain. He took up the name Ingenium, and he's desperate to show the world that he can live up to his brother's legacy."

Ochako remembered that incident, albeit not well. She knew it resulted in Deku, Iida, and Todoroki getting caught up with the villain somehow, but she had never gotten the details. She probably never would. But speaking of Todoroki …

"You think he can beat Todoroki?"

She hated the way her heart skipped a beat when Deku huffed a laugh and smiled as though he knew something she didn't. She pushed it down and ignored it. She didn't need this today.

"Todoroki knows how important this win would be to Iida, and besides, there's _nothing_ that would piss off his father more than if he came in second. Again."

Ochako didn't know the full story behind Todoroki's strained relationship with Endeavour, and again, she probably never would; however, she was neither dumb nor unobservant. Endeavour was the only hero about whom Deku didn't speak with near-reverent respect and admiration despite his having been number one for a while now. It took a lot for Deku to lose respect for a hero, and there was nothing he was more protective of than his friends.

But it wasn't her place, so she let it go without question.

The door burst open, causing them both to jump. Upon the realization that it was just Recovery Girl returning from an errand, Ochako let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding.

"Oh, Uraraka!" Recovery Girl said. "Hello, dear. Did you need anything? That was a nasty hit you took out there."

"No I'm fine, thank you!" Ochako chirped. "It's just some bruising. I actually came looking for Deku; we've been worried about him."

"Ah, yes. Nasty thing, colds. Actually, dear" – she directed toward Deku – "if you're still hiding, you should probably get a move on. Bakugou and Todoroki are set to start their match in a minute, and knowing those two, someone is going to end up in here afterwards."

"R-Right!" Deku said, removing the blanket from his shoulders and folding it. "Thank you, Recovery Girl!"

The old woman fixed him with a stern eye. "You've got to promise me you're going to take care of yourself after this," she said. "I can't believe I'm still letting you compete."

"I'll make sure he gets the rest he needs," Ochako offered. She shot Deku a sly glance. "I'll tell Iida too."

Deku blanched at the thought of how their slightly (read: very) overbearing friend would take the news of his illness and subsequent recklessness. Ochako stifled a laugh.

They ducked out of Recovery Girl's office. They walked together for a bit, chatting about nothing in particular, but eventually split – Deku to one of the waiting rooms, and Ochako back to the stands.

* * *

The rest of the Sports Festival went almost exactly how Deku predicted.

Todoroki won his match against Bakugou. Despite his loss, the gleam in Bakugou's eyes and the relative lack of Baku Rage Aura told Ochako he considered it a good fight. This was good, for everyone's sake. No one wanted a repeat of last year.

Iida won his match against Deku. Deku was right – in this state, he was no match for Iida's speed. Still, Ochako had to commend him for his strength. If she didn't already know he was horrendously sick, she wouldn't have guessed it just from watching him in the ring. Had he been up against anyone else, he would have had a fighting chance. Iida was just too fast for his foggy brain to keep up with.

Unfortunately, he didn't get much of a break before facing off against Bakugou for the third place title.

The third place match was … something. It was easily the most explosive, brutal, high-impact match of the day. There was a sense of desperation to it that the others didn't have, and Ochako knew – perhaps all of 2-A knew – it was because both parties had too much to prove to one another.

For a good five minutes, the two appeared to be locked in stalemate. Had Ochako breathed in those five minutes? She must have, but she didn't feel like it. Eventually, though, Deku's guard faltered for a split second. It was all the opening Bakugou needed.

Deku fell.

He tried to push himself to his feet, but his arms gave out and he gave up. Ochako sighed as the medic bots came to collect him. At least it was over.

Down on the field, Bakugou stared as Deku was carted away. It took some incredibly insistent ushering to get him to leave the ring so it could be repaired in time for the final match. Ochako couldn't even begin to guess what he was thinking. He wasn't yelling, which could be good … or it could be very, very bad.

She didn't have time to dwell on it, as Cementoss repaired the ring and Iida and Todoroki filed on shortly thereafter.

The final match wasn't nearly as intense as the one before it. In fact, it felt more like an elaborately choreographed dance than the death match they just witnessed. Recalling Deku's words from earlier, Ochako watched Todoroki with great interest.

"Wow," she said, mostly to herself. "That's crazy! He's not even breaking a sweat!"

Mina overheard her. "There's a reason he's the strongest, most attractive guy in our class," she gushed.

Ochako hummed in acknowledgement, her mind elsewhere as she watched the fight before her. Todoroki wasn't _playing_ with Iida, per se, nor was he necessarily going easy on him. A year ago Ochako would have taken the fight at face value, but at this point she had listened to Deku analyze so many fights beside her that it was easy to see Todoroki wasn't taking the kill shots he could have to win the match.

It was clear: Todoroki _wanted_ to come in second place.

"Come on, Iida!" she screamed, jumping to her feet with a hand cupped beside her mouth. "You can do it!"

Her shout was lost in the roar of the crowd. She sat back down, ignoring questioning looks from both Mina and Kaminari. A tap on her shoulder brought her around to face Tsuyu.

"You think he's going to win, ribbit?" Tsuyu asked.

"Yeah, I–"

"Whooaah, look at that!"

Kirishima's shout startled her out of her train of thought. She looked back at the ring, and her jaw dropped.

Todoroki was a blazing inferno. Iida ran tight circles around him, stirring up a swift circular breeze that Todoroki's flames rode high up into the air. Together, they had created an impressive fire cyclone.

They kept it going for several seconds, no doubt proud of what they had done. Despite training to be heroes, the two _were_ still teenage boys. The crowd oohed and ahhed, and the pair reveled in the attention.

Then, Iida changed trajectories and knocked Todoroki clean out of the ring.

The buzzer sounded. Their second Sports Festival was over.

"AND we have our champion, Iidaaaaa TENYAAAA – HERO INGENIUM!"

The crowd went _wild_.

* * *

That evening, Ochako and Deku dragged Iida out to get ice cream in order to celebrate his win. Deku looked much better after a serious healing and a long nap, but he was still sniffly and doing his best to hide it. Iida protested, horrified that Deku wanted to leave the dorms in his condition, but was eventually swayed.

"Congratulations, Iida!" Ochako cheered as they sat down at a table with their ice cream. "You were amazing out there! You were all like, _fwoosh_ , and then – kaPOW!"

The two boys laughed. "Thanks, Uraraka," Iida said. "It certainly felt that way – although I know I would not have won had Midoriya been well."

Deku smiled weakly. "Y-You don't know that," he said. "I think we're pretty evenly matched! I mean, yeah, my quirk is super powerful, but that power doesn't matter if I can't hit you and you're super-fast. Plus there's the fact I've only been fighting with my legs for about eight months now, and you've been fighting that way the entire time, and–"

"Midoriya." Iida cut him off. "You're going off on a tangent again."

"Eheh, sorry…"

"So maybe I would have won," Iida conceded. His tone became officious. "But what were you doing, fighting like that when you were so ill! You should have been resting! Relaxing! Nothing is more important than your health! You should know that by now, Midoriya! And yet you fought four matches! This was extremely irresponsible of you."

His arms flailed with his words, and it was Ochako's turn to laugh. "You think Deku would let something like a cold stop him? He's Deku – _Dekiru_ – he can do it!"

Deku flushed under her praise. She flashed him a cheeky smile, once again ignoring the traitorous thump in her chest.

"You're right." Iida sighed the long-suffering sigh of a put-upon friend. "You're absolutely right. But," he said, addressing Deku, "you're drinking fluids, taking cold medicine, and going to bed as soon as we get back to the dorms."

"Y-yes, sir!" Deku squeaked.

The three sat in companionable silence as they ate their ice cream. They had considered inviting some of their other friends out with them, but Deku was still trying to hide the fact he was recovering from a cold. Besides, it had been a while since they had last hung out, just the three of them.

Iida sighed again, breaking the silence. His hands cupped his ice cream bowl, his left index finger tapping the flimsy cardboard. "I know that I might not – _would_ not – have won our match, Midoriya, had you been on top of your game today, just as I know that Todoroki _let_ me win my match against him."

"Iida–" Deku said, his voice soft.

Iida interrupted him and pressed on, his fingers now tapping rhythmically against the tabletop. "I know I should not have won the tournament today, and yet, somehow, that has not ruined it for me. I stood up there on that platform, with my brother's name, and announced to the world that his legacy lives on."

"That's right," Ochako said on an exhale. "Your brother … That was a year ago today, wasn't it?"

She knew it was. She and Deku had just talked about it earlier today, in Recovery Girls' office, but she felt like she needed to say something. She felt like _Iida_ needed her to say something.

"Yes, it was." Iida had begun clenching and unclenching his fist as he talked. "He's doing a lot better now; he actually came to watch the matches today. And he saw me, up there, on that podium." He was openly fighting back tears at this point. "You have no idea just how much that meant to me."

He turned to Deku and bowed sharply in his seat. "I will never, ever say this again, but thank you for getting incredibly sick today!"

Deku leaned back, waving his hands frantically. "No, no, it's okay! Y-You're welcome, I guess!"

They fell silent again as Iida took a minute to compose himself.

"I … I saw that Todoroki wasn't taking any kill shots," Ochako offered tentatively. "I think I've accidentally picked up a lot from Deku muttering into my ear during training battles!"

Deku flushed again. "Sorry about that," he said, rubbing at the back of his neck. "I can't help it sometimes."

"No, it's not a bad thing! By all means, keep doing it!" she insisted. "I actually learned something! I only wish I'd been able to apply it more in my own match."

She tried so hard to keep her voice from falling, but she knew she failed when the boys' faces crumpled. Shit. That was pity. She didn't want pity; she was just stating a point!

"Yeah, I saw you got paired up with Todoroki for the preliminaries," Deku said. "How'd that go, anyway? You didn't tell me anything about it."

Ochako winced. "Not … great," she admitted. Suddenly, her ice cream was the most interesting thing in the room. "It was over pretty quick."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

She shook her head emphatically. "Don't be!" she insisted. "He's a better fighter, and the fact is his quirk is just _stronger_ than mine. I never actually thought I'd win that match!"

She just thought she'd last a little longer.

"Uraraka!" Iida scolded. "Don't put yourself down like that! Your quirk is plenty strong, and you've done just as much training as the rest of us! You floated _yourself_ over that ice, which you couldn't have done last year!"

Ochako nodded. "Yeah, I know. My parents pointed that out to me, too."

"It was just some bad luck that you got Todoroki in the first draw," Deku said, leaning forward in his chair. Then he sat back. "Huh. You really do have bad luck. You drew Kacchan in the first round last year, and Todoroki this year."

Ochako nodded again, but stopped as Deku's words registered. They originally made her feel better, but the more she mulled over them, the more they bothered her.

Was that really all it was?

"Luck?" she asked, unable to stop herself. Her throat constricted as she worked through the sudden overwhelming emotion. "So you're saying I should rely on _luck_ to win my battles for me?"

"That's not what I meant–"

"Then what did you mean?" Ochako demanded. The ball of fire that had been sitting in her chest since her match that morning grew tighter and hotter, and it burned her heart. "Because okay, what if I hadn't drawn Todoroki, and I'd gotten Tsuyu instead? If I'd won that match, and maybe the ones after, I would have eventually come up against Todoroki, or you, or Iida, or Bakugou, and I would have been just as screwed!"

Deku gaped at her like a fish, for once in his life lost for words. Iida, on the other hand, stared at her as though she had grown a second head.

She should stop. Deku hadn't meant what he said in the way she was interpreting it. He didn't deserve to be on the receiving end of her ire at herself for not being good enough. But that ball of fire grew tighter and hotter and tighter and hotter until the only thing left for it to do was go supernova.

"It's easy for you to say, 'it's just bad luck,' because you don't have to rely on luck! You're in the top four! Untouchable, un _beatable_ to anyone except each other. You're always striving for the top, and what can I do? I can only hope to keep up with the average, maybe the slightly above average, _if I'm lucky_. And there it is again! Luck!"

It was only when she stopped talking that she realized her volume had gone above what was considered acceptable, that she was standing, and that she was making a scene in the ice cream parlor. She sat down abruptly, her face bright red.

" _Neither_ of you lay awake in bed at night wondering if you were born _enough_ for this life. Wondering if your quirk is really cut out for hero work. Wondering if – if after all the hard work and training you've put in – wondering if all your accomplishments can be chalked up to _luck_."

The supernova fizzled out, and all she was left with was a gaping black hole where her anger used to be. She was going to cry, and she could not – _would_ not – let them see her cry. She was weak enough already, not to mention the fact she had just ruined Iida's celebration ice cream.

"I'm sorry," she said, grabbing her purse and her empty ice cream container. "I'm just– Gonna go."

And so she did, and left two absolutely dumbfounded boys in her wake. Neither of them chased after her, and she fought the prickle of tears all the way back to Heights Alliance.

It was only once she was safely ensconced in her room that she allowed them to fall.

* * *

 _A/N:_

 _In honor of Ochako's birthday, I'm posting this today. I don't know when I'll update next but I will._

 _You can find me on tumblr ( karmahope. tumblr ), on the Camp Kacchako Discord ( discord. gg/ EwBFYQX)! I also have my own Discord server ( discord. gg/ E5rT8kH), since I've heard that's a thing some authors do. If you want to discuss this fic or any of my other fics more in detail, come join me!_


	2. The Importance of Friends

**The Gravity of the Situation  
** Karmahope

Ochako slept late the next morning.

As she surfaced to consciousness, she became intimately aware of the heaviness of her eyes in her skull. She'd cried herself to sleep, and was certainly feeling the aftereffects now. Her heart fell into the pit of her stomach. She really owed both Deku and Iida an apology, she mused as she rolled to stare at the ceiling, but she also really didn't want to face them.

Yawning and pushing herself upright, she swung her legs over the side of the bed before plucking off her sleep mittens and casting them aside. She glanced at the alarm clock over on her desk and groaned.

10:03 AM.

Ochako dug the heels of her palms into her eyes in an attempt to rub out the puffiness and sighed heavily. The night had tempered her anger. Now she was just lost. She wanted to be better. She _needed_ to be better.

It was non-negotiable.

Loathe to leave the safety of her bed, Ochako reluctantly pushed herself to her feet. As she did every morning, she pulled the window curtain aside to let in the morning light. The dust danced. Squinting against the brightness for a long moment, she turned away to get ready for the day.

Like last year, UA didn't hold class for the two days following the Sports Festival; therefore, Ochako took her time in the bathroom and getting dressed. After a hot shower and an involved skincare routine from Momo that Ochako didn't usually bother with, the puffiness in her face had faded to a manageable level. At first glance, she looked no worse for wear for her emotional breakdown the night before.

Steeling her nerves against her desire to hide in her room all day, she made her way down to the first floor.

Although it was getting on toward eleven o'clock, the common room was nearly barren. It wasn't _too_ surprising. After all, it was a non-school morning, they'd exhausted themselves at the Festival yesterday, and most of their class had been up late the night before and was comprised of teenage boys.

There were only two people sitting at one of the tables: Tsuyu … and Deku.

So much for not facing him.

"Good morning, Tsuyu!" Ochako said jovially as she entered the kitchen to get breakfast. "Good morning, Deku!"

Maybe they could work through this like last night never happened? Ochako risked a glance in Deku's direction. She froze when their eyes met.

"Good morning, Ochako-chan," Tsuyu replied. "How are you this morning, ribbit?"

Deku remained silent. With a sinking feeling in her stomach, Ochako turned away and busied herself with pulling a couple eggs from the refrigerator. She quickly set to frying them. Her ribs screamed at her with the movement, and she answered Tsuyu with the first thing that came to mind.

"Sore."

Tsuyu grinned. "Me too, ribbit. I think everyone is. Iida-chan was complaining about it as well, wasn't he, Midoriya-chan?"

"Ah," Deku said. "Yeah, he was."

Ochako's stomach sank once again at the mention of Iida – soon her stomach would be in her _toes_ at this rate – but she tried to keep it off her face. "Where is Iida, anyway?" she asked. "I usually see him when I come down in the mornings."

"He went for a run," Deku supplied, staring down at his bowl. "He said he'd be back in a bit."

"Ah. All right."

Ochako carefully dumped her eggs onto a plate, depositing the frying pan in the sink to wash up after she ate. On school mornings she generally had just a bowl of cereal in her room, but she preferred to cook a little something on mornings she had time. It was a good excuse to come down to the first floor and hang out with her friends.

She sat down across from Tsuyu, who peered at her with wide eyes. Granted, that was just how her eyes _were_ , but Ochako shifted uncomfortably under the scrutiny.

The three sat in silence for several minutes.

"Well, I'm gonna go hit Gym Zeta," Deku said, standing. "If you need me, you know where to find me! I'll see you guys later." He washed his bowl and spoon, and then he left.

Ochako sighed.

"Is everything okay, ribbit?" Tsuyu finally asked.

Ochako stared at a forkful of eggs before letting it drop with another sigh. "Oh, Tsu," she said, "I screwed everything up!"

Tsuyu blinked. "You're going to have to be more specific, ribbit," she said, a finger poking at her lip. She thought for a moment. "You and Midoriya-chan were both acting odd just now. Did he reject you, ribbit?"

Ochako froze. "Did Deku– What? No!" She yelped, sparing a glance around the room to make sure she and Tsuyu were still alone. This wasn't something she wanted anyone else to hear. "It's not like that," she insisted. "I haven't told him how I–"

Feel?

Felt?

She wasn't sure which tense was most appropriate. It didn't matter. Either way, she wasn't going to say anything to him about it. Her crush had faded over the months as it morphed into a much stronger familial bond. The strong rushes of affection she still felt for her friend were easier to channel platonically, and that was what she did.

Sure, her traitorous heart sometimes skipped a beat when she looked at him or he talked to her, but it wasn't really as debilitating as it once was.

"But it's about Midoriya-chan?" Tsuyu prompted.

Ochako sighed again. "Yeah. He said something last night that upset me more than it should have. I yelled at him and he didn't deserve it, so it's kind of weird now." She huffed a laugh. "I actually need to apologize to both him _and_ Iida."

Tsuyu hummed. "I'm sure you'll be fine, ribbit. You guys are best friends; I'm sure they'll forgive you."

Ochako smiled, but it didn't meet her eyes. "Hopefully," she said. "Thanks, Tsu."

Tsuyu smiled and reached over to pat Ochako's hand. "What are friends for, ribbit?"

They sat together as Ochako finished her breakfast. Tsuyu had already eaten, but she had an after-breakfast snack of a few flies that buzzed about the room. That was one perk of having a frog-girl as a classmate – the 2-A dorms never had a bug problem.

It had taken a little getting used to.

They parted ways soon thereafter. Ochako had dishes to wash up and Tsuyu had promised Mina she'd help sort through her closet – a herculean task, really. Ochako wished her luck; Tsuyu laughed.

Iida still hadn't returned by the time she washed and put away her dishes. Ochako supposed she could go find Deku instead, but she didn't want to interrupt his workout and the weirdness of earlier still weighed on her. Instead, she grabbed a sweatshirt someone had left draped over the back of the couch and went outside. She sat on the front steps to await Iida's return.

The morning was pleasant, if a bit chilly. Ochako silently thanked whomever it was that left their sweatshirt downstairs. It was definitely a boy's hoodie. Kirishima or Kaminari, maybe? Sero, perhaps? They were all forgetful enough to have done so. Thankfully, it was too large to be Mineta's.

It smelled nice, but that was no help. She didn't get close enough to any of the guys outside of training to know what they smelled like when they didn't smell like sweat.

Ochako breathed deeply and wrung her hands together, her squishy finger pads running over rough calluses forged by a year of weightlifting, martial arts, and hero work. Her hands now snagged on the soft fabric of her casual clothes. She didn't know when that started.

It was satisfying.

She _earned_ those calluses, _earned_ the muscle definition she saw in the mirror. She had put in the work and gotten solid, tangible results out of it. She was growing. She was improving. She was miles ahead of where she started.

But it wasn't enough.

"Uraraka? Are you okay?"

Ochako looked up. Iida stood before her. His engines smoked and his hair was swept away from his face as if he'd run his fingers back through it. He looked … a lot younger, she mused, when he was slightly disheveled in non-issue workout gear and without the perpetual knit in his brow from taking too much responsibility on himself.

She nearly laughed at herself for calling something that wasn't UA uniform gear 'non-issue,' like they were part of a military or something. Then again, something niggled at her that told her she wasn't exactly _wrong_. She dismissed the thought.

"Hi! Good morning! Yeah, I'm fine," she chirped when she realized she hadn't responded. "Sorry, I just–" She winced. "Can I talk to you for a moment?"

… Could she make it sound any more ominous?

"Of course!" Iida insisted. He sat down beside her on the steps a comfortable distance away. He cast her a gentle look and said, "I don't want to presume, but is this about last night?"

Ochako couldn't help but smile, even if it was nothing more than a quirk of her lips. "Yeah," she said. "I just … wanted to apologize, I guess. I said some things that were out of line, and we were supposed to be celebrating your big win. I- I made it all about me, and I'm sorry."

Iida considered her. The silence stretched out, and Ochako began to squirm a little beneath the attention.

"I accept you apology," he stated at last, "but it's unnecessary. Your frustration was entirely understandable, and Midoriya…" He trailed off, pausing as he collected his thoughts. "Midoriya meant well. He was trying to help you feel better, but I don't think that's what you were looking for at the time."

Ochako ducked her head and shook it in the negative. "I – I guess it kind of felt like he wasn't taking me seriously," she offered. "I really appreciated what you said about me using my quirk on myself, but it felt like he just... I don't know, brushed me off, I guess."

It was only as she spoke that she realized why it had upset her so much. "It was … kind of exactly what I was afraid of happening – what I _am_ afraid of happening. If I got looked over by Deku, what if I get looked over or disregarded for internships by the pros? What if they don't take me seriously because I lost my match in a minute and a half?"

Iida leaned back on his elbows against the steps, humming thoughtfully as he gazed off into the distance. After living together for a year, Ochako knew he wasn't always as uptight as he made himself out to be, but those moments were rare and far between.

"You weren't wrong," he mused. "What you said about me, and Midoriya, and Todoroki and Bakugou. I'm realizing it's … easy to become … _complacent_ , when you're at the top. You're right – usually, only one of us can beat the other. There have been times we've been so close in skill or power that it's come down to, well, _luck_. Who has the better day? Who recently learned a new technique the others don't know about yet?" He shrugged. "I myself was lucky that Midoriya was sick and not on top of his game yesterday. For us, it doesn't necessarily say anything about our skill level." He looked back at her. "That's a security I now realize a lot of people don't have."

Ochako shrugged as well. "I know there are always going to be those with more powerful quirks, those who are more skilled than others. There's always going to be _some_ piece of it that comes down to luck. I know that too. And I also know I got into UA when most of the others who applied didn't. I just… I don't really know where I was going with this," she admitted. "But do you get what I'm saying?"

"I do indeed," Iida said as he pushed himself to his feet. He offered her a hand to help her up, and she took it gratefully. As they walked up the steps to the dorm, he said, "You know, if you're looking for new ways to apply your quirk, you may want to ask Midoriya. This seems it would be right up his alley."

Ochako laughed, a weight lifted from her chest. "I'm already ahead of you there," she said. "I just … haven't talked to him yet."

Iida smiled. "Good. Now, have you eaten breakfast?"

* * *

Ochako stood outside the door to Deku's room a while later. Fiddling nervously with the worn cuffs of the borrowed sweatshirt she had yet to take off, she shuffled nervously. He was back from Gym Zeta – she heard the wheels of his desk chair squeaking – but still she hesitated. She couldn't wait much longer. Soon, someone would walk by and see her standing there like an idiot.

And wouldn't that start the rumors flying again?

"Come on, Ochako," she urged herself in a whisper, swatting her face lightly. "He's your best friend! You can do this!"

Mustering her courage, she reached out and rapped on the door. A muffled "Come in!" came back at her, and she pushed inside.

She found Deku slouched in his desk chair, his eyes trained on the computer in front of him. He turned at her entrance.

"O-oh! Uraraka!" he exclaimed, sitting up in his seat. "Hi!"

Ochako looked from Deku to the notebook laid before him. Her gaze flicked over to the laptop computer that was set up and paused on a freeze-frame of Kirishima and Kendou's fight from the day before.

"Is this a bad time?" she asked. She remembered the awkwardness of that morning and wanted to avoid a repeat of that if at all possible.

"What? No! No, come in," Deku insisted, beckoning her in. She closed the door behind her with a soft _click_ and walked over to perch on the edge of his bed. As always when she entered Deku's room, she fought to avoid cringing beneath All Might's judgmental gaze.

The silence was oppressive.

"Taking notes on everyone's quirks?" she asked, lost for anything else to say but refusing to let the silence stretch on any longer.

"Yeah!" Deku enthused, maybe a little too loudly. He spun around to face her. "I didn't actually get to see anyone's fights yesterday, so I found the coverage online. Man, I wish I hadn't been sick!" As if to accentuate his point, he coughed. "Everyone's amazing!"

Ochako smiled, her stomach flipping at his boyish enthusiasm. "They really are," she agreed. She swallowed and pushed on – she was here for a reason. "Look, about what I said last night–"

Deku laughed and waved her off. "You don't need to apologize," he said. "I, uh, I was really rude last night, and I didn't take into account how you were feeling. I watched your match earlier and I can see how it was disheartening, but I think you did really well with what you had! Todoroki–"

"Deku." Ochako cut him off before he could go off on another mumbled tangent. "That doesn't excuse me for how I responded. I shouldn't have gotten that upset, so I'm sorry."

Deku regarded her for a long moment with those green, green eyes of his. She squashed the butterflies in her stomach. It was an improvement, at least. Last year, she would've actually blushed.

He sighed.

He looked away.

He bit his lip.

He reached up and ruffled his hair.

"Uraraka," he said. "Can you keep a secret?"

Ochako nearly laughed. Could _she_ keep a secret? If only he knew.

"Yeah," she said with a firm nod instead, ignoring the wrenching in her gut. "Absolutely!"

Deku smiled at her. She looked back at him, concerned. It was unusual for Deku to confide in her – to confide in _anyone_ , really. Despite his geniality, he generally kept to himself and played his cards close. When he did talk to someone, it was usually All Might or recently – puzzlingly – Bakugou. What could he possibly want to tell _her?_

She never could have expected what came next.

"Well, uh," he said, "growing up, I, um, I actually thought I was quirkless for a very long time."

He refused to meet her eyes as he spoke. It was almost as if he were _embarrassed_ to be admitting this to her.

"Quirk … less?" Ochako asked, stunned. "But you have an amazing quirk!"

Deku laughed, but it wasn't sincere. "Yeah, I know. It's amazing. But, um, you've seen how destructive it is, right?"

As if she could forget. She nodded.

"Our– The theory is that if it manifested earlier, it would've blown me apart. So it just … didn't, I guess. And I grew up quirkless. _Essentially_ quirkless, at least. But despite that, I still wanted to be a hero more than anything else in the world." He gestured to the abundance of All Might merch around the room as he spoke, an indecipherable expression on his face.

"I didn't want to go anywhere but UA. I was determined to take the entrance exam, even without a quirk. Kacchan wasn't too happy about that, but–" He winced. "I didn't mean to say that. Please don't hold it against him."

"Uh, sure." Ochako knew there was more to the bad blood between the two boys than most of the class was aware of, but this was the first she'd heard of it having anything to do with _quirklessness_. She filed the thought away for later. "But you had a quirk," she protested, "during the entrance exam! You saved me!"

Deku scoffed. "Yeah, and broke three of my four limbs in the process! Uraraka," he said, looking up to meet her gaze squarely, "my quirk manifested the _night_ before the entrance exam. I was … I was _incredibly_ lucky, and sometimes I forget that."

Ochako stared at him. Then she broke down into giggles. Deku looked almost insulted, and she waved him off. "No, no, it's not that. It's just" – she drew a breath – "that's the _epitome_ of 'that sounds fake, but okay.'"

"I'm serious!" Deku exclaimed, his face cracking into a wide grin. "I didn't even know how to turn it on during the exam! That's why I didn't get any points!"

Ochako composed herself. "I'm sorry," she said, contrite. "I had to."

"Yeah, well," Deku said. "I, uh, I just wanted you to know, because I kind of understood what you were saying about wondering if your accomplishments could be chalked up to luck. What if my quirk hadn't manifested that night? What if it had been even a day later? What if it hadn't manifested at all? And it's … it's not fun, wondering like that. I'm sorry I made you feel that way, or at least that I brought it up the way I did. I wasn't thinking."

"No, Deku, I–" Shit, were those tears? Those _were_ tears. Dammit. He trusted her so much, even with something as serious as this, and she couldn't handle it. She didn't _deserve_ it.

"Uraraka, don't cry! That's my job!"

She looked up to see Deku – fearless, determined Deku – panicking in the face of a crying girl, and she smiled.

"You're amazing," she said, wiping her cheeks. "Even without a quirk! You've been analyzing fights and stuff since forever, right? That's super cool."

Deku shrugged. "It was the next best thing."

Ochako drew a deep breath. It was okay. Everything was going to be okay. "Come here," she said, standing and opening her arms. "Hug time."

Deku smiled, and tears welled in his own eyes. They were a right pair of messes, weren't they? He stood and met her, his arms wrapping tight and his head nestling in the crook of her shoulder. Her stomach flipped only once at the proximity, after which she settled into the comfort both given and received. He really was her best friend, and she'd do anything to keep it that way.

When they stepped apart, she reached up and ruffled his hair. She had to reach up a lot farther to do so now that he was hitting his growth spurt, but she managed. He sputtered at her, but offered no real protest.

"Actually," she said, grinning up at him, "that was kind of the other reason I wanted to talk to you. If you're willing, I could really use your quirk analysis skills for a little bit."

"Sure!" Deku said, his face lighting eagerly. "What's up?"

* * *

An hour later found them both sprawled across Deku's bed. Deku was propped up against his pillow and surrounded by his laptop and hero notebooks; Ochako hovered about a foot above the covers as she took the opportunity to push her time limit. If she was going to be better, she needed to start somewhere.

That wasn't to say they'd been working for the entire hour, of course. They'd gotten distracted in the meantime. Ochako asked Deku about his notebooks, something she had known about for a long time but never seen. Despite his initial hesitation, Deku pulled them off the shelf to show her. His eagerness grew at her interest, and it wasn't long before he began talking in depth about various heroes' and their classmate's quirks alike.

He didn't touch the notebook with obvious water damage. She didn't ask.

Todoroki showed up at one point to check on Deku, having noticed his absence the day before. He didn't stay long, but it was still enough to distract the two for even longer.

"Okay," Deku said, finally focused. "First question. What _is_ your quirk?"

Ochako blinked at him. "You know what my quirk is."

Deku looked up from his notebook, nibbling gently on the end of his pen. He smiled lopsidedly around it. "Humor me?"

"Well," Ochako said, smiling back at him, "it's Zero Gravity. I make things float." She gestured to herself as she spoke, but the motion sent her off balance. She struggled to regain her equilibrium.

"How?"

She looked down at her palms, eyeing her padded fingertips. "I touch an object with all five fingers, and it negates the gravity on that object."

Deku hummed as he perused his notes, tapping his lips idly with the pen. "Earth's gravity," he said.

"Huh?"

He looked up at her. "Your quirk – it negates Earth's gravity. If you negated _all_ gravity on an object, it would essentially become a fixed point in space. Considering the Earth revolves around the sun due to the sun's gravitational force at" – he paused to look up the figure on his laptop – "one hundred, seven thousand kilometers per hour, any object you floated would immediately fly off the planet on a linear trajectory at … hmm…"

Deku typed something else into his computer, and Ochako watched as his face changed. He looked up at her with a sheepish expression on his face. "Mach 87? At least?"

Ochako's eyebrows shot upward. "That's … a lot," she said.

"But then there's still the Earth's rotation to take into account," Deku muttered, mostly to himself. If he'd even heard her, she didn't know. "If there isn't any gravity, then there's still the rotational velocity to take into account, which is … sixteen hundred kilometers per hour. I know that velocity is constant so there isn't any actual _force_ , but without gravity to keep the object on Earth's surface, it _should_ fly off tangentially into space … right? Ugh, I don't actually know enough about physics to say for certain!"

"Deku," Ochako said, "you're muttering again, and I'm not entirely sure I follow."

Deku took a deep breath. "Basically, since Earth rotates, if your quirk negated Earth's gravity entirely, then the object wouldn't just float above the Earth's surface – as you're doing now – but would float off into space in a straight line."

"So that means…" Ochako racked her brain as she tried to connect the dots. "That means I have to be maintaining _some_ amount of gravity on the object?"

"Yeah," Deku said, scribbling in his notebook. "You're probably adjusting the gravity of things enough to keep them in low-level orbits. If so, your quirk has to be far more nuanced than we've ever realized, and you have some level of extremely fine-tuned control that's so instinctive you've just never thought about it."

It was at that moment that Ochako's nausea threatened to overwhelm her. "Release," she said, and dropped down onto the bed.

"Yeowch! Those were my _legs_ , Uraraka! I need those!"

"Sorry!"

Ochako settled into a more comfortable position with her legs thrown over Deku's. She leaned against the wall as she settled into thought. Her quirk had always seemed so straightforward, so simple. She touched something with five fingers; it floated. She had a weight limit she couldn't exceed, and using her quirk on herself made her nauseous. She had been pushing both her weight limit and the length of time she could float herself, but there wasn't much else she could do, right?

"Uraraka," Deku said, "do you know for certain that your quirk is just Zero Gravity? Or is that just what you assumed it was?"

A wave of indignation rose in Ochako's chest and crashed over her. "What do you mean? It's never been anything different!"

"What I meant was," Deku scrambled, shoving his pen behind his ear, "is Zero Gravity the extent of your quirk? Or is it just the default? We've just established that you're still maintaining some sort of gravitational control on the objects you float since they're not rocketing off into space. Is your quirk Zero Gravity? Or could it be something more like Gravity Manipulation? And if it's the second, could you make things heavier? _Increase_ the gravity on an object?"

He looked at her with bright eyes, eager and hungry for information she couldn't give him. She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. "I–" She swallowed hard and tried again. "I've had my quirk for twelve years," she found herself saying. "I think I'd have noticed by now if there was anything more to it."

Deku's face tightened, and he nodded. "Just … think about it, Uraraka. The rest of us, our quirks are confined to ourselves. I hit hard, Kacchan makes explosions with his hands. Iida runs fast, Todoroki creates fire and ice, Aoyama has his navel laser, Tsuyu is a frog…" He trailed off and stopped himself before running through their entire class. "But you – you play with gravitational force. You negate _gravity_ , a universal _constant_ , a universal _law_. You're dealing with something far bigger than any of the rest of us ever will and if you could truly harness that?"

He met her eyes. There was something in his expression she had seen many times before, but never directed at her. Awe. For _her_. There was a time when she would have given anything to receive that from him, but now she just fiddled uncomfortably with the cuffs of her borrowed sweatshirt under his gaze.

That awe wasn't for her, after all. Not really. It was for her quirk, and what it might be. Not what it was. The truth hurt, but she forced a smile to her face. Deku was a good friend, and she hoped he always would be, but she knew she would just end up hurt in the end if she tried to pursue anything more with him.

She ran a thumb over the pads on her fingers. "I'd be a force of nature," she answered him in a whisper, "and then there would be nothing that could stop me."

But his attention was no longer on her. His brows furrowed as he regarded the sweatshirt she wore. "I was too distracted before," he said, "but … wasn't Kacchan wearing that sweatshirt yesterday?"

Ochako sighed. Grabbing the front of the sweatshirt, she pulled it away from her chest and looked down at it. "I dunno. Boys' clothes all look the same sometimes. It was draped over the back of the couch earlier and I needed a sweatshirt." She shrugged and pushed herself off the bed. "If it _is_ his, I'll apologize and give it back and he'll threaten to kill me but won't. He's kind of predictable."

Deku laughed. "He'd kill you if he heard you say that."

Ochako grinned and shrugged again. "As I said: predictable. I'll see you later, Deku. I have some homework I have to finish before class starts again."

Deku waved, and she let herself out of his room. Taking a deep breath, she centered herself and began the trek back to her own room.

Gravity Manipulation, huh?

* * *

Ochako did not get her homework done.

She tried, she really did, but she couldn't focus. Her thoughts constantly returned to her conversation with Deku. Her mathematics forgotten before her, she toyed idly with her pencil instead. It hovered above her desk, occasionally drifting too far in one direction. She corrected its course with a light touch.

Ochako's quirk was a part of her just as much as anyone else's quirk was a part of them. She barely remembered a time when she _didn't_ have her quirk. She had always been Uraraka Ochako, quirk: Zero Gravity. In grade school, she rattled it off in introductions just as easily as she did her age. Easier, even: unlike her age, her quirk didn't change.

Until now?

No. Some supposition on Deku's part did not change the quirk she'd had since she was four years old.

Ochako stared at the pencil. She felt the faint tingling sensation in her fingers and stomach that indicated her quirk was active, but she was in no danger of nausea. A pencil was practically nothing at this point. She concentrated on that feeling: on the connection between herself, the Earth, the universe, and the object before her.

She'd never really thought about it before. She touched things. They floated. Done. But now?

Thinking hard about that feeling, she tried tweaking it. She succeeded only in making herself feel dumb. _Tweak_ the feeling? How? It wouldn't change just because she _thought_ about it. It didn't work that way!

Ochako sighed. Deku was often right, but this may be one of those times where he wasn't.

A sharp rapping at the door broke her concentration. The pencil clattered to the desk and rolled off onto the floor when she wasn't fast enough to catch it.

"Ochako!"

"Yes?" Ochako called back. "It's open!"

The door cracked open to reveal … nobody.

"Are you free?" Tooru asked.

Ochako glanced at her forgotten assignment. She could do it just as well tomorrow as she could tonight. "Yeah," she said. "I'm free! What's up?"

"Girls' Club!" Tooru said. "My room! Ten minutes!"

"Okay!"

And then Tooru was gone. The door clicked shut behind her.

Ochako wondered what it was that prompted the Girls' Club meeting. Girls' Club was something the six of them had developed sometime in the middle of first year. Determined to support each other, Girls' Club did everything together, from workouts to sleepovers and everything in between.

"The boys are dumb and keep competing with each other," Tsuyu had commented once. "Wouldn't it be better if they all worked together?"

"It would," Momo had replied. "But they can figure that out for themselves. If we don't tell them, then we'll have the advantage."

And thus Girls' Club was born.

The meeting tonight would probably turn into a sleepover since they didn't have school tomorrow. In the ten minutes she had, Ochako changed into a pair of leggings and an oversized NASA t-shirt. As she tossed her clothes into her hamper, she noticed the black sweatshirt laid out at the foot of her bed.

Deku said it was Bakugou's, right? She should probably return it. It was the right thing to do.

There was still time before she had to meet the others in Tooru's room, so she might as well do it now. Checking to make sure she had everything she needed, Ochako left her room with the sweatshirt in one hand and a blanket in the other.

At least Bakugou lived on the same floor as she did, she mused as she approached his room. It meant she didn't have to go too far out of her way. Taking a deep breath, she knocked without hesitation.

A loud groan sounded from inside. "Who is it? What do you want?"

"It's Uraraka," Ochako barked back through the door. "I have your sweatshirt!"

Rustling sounded, followed by footsteps. Bakugou yanked his door open. Ochako took half a step back. The boy glared down at her, not that it meant much. Bakugou was always glaring. She met his gaze squarely as she held out the sweatshirt.

"This was in the common area this morning, and I needed a sweatshirt. Deku said it might be yours? I'm sorry I took it without asking."

Bakugou blinked. "It's not mine."

"It's … not?"

"Sure," he said. "I wore it the other day, and the nerd must have fuckin' noticed, but it's not _mine_."

"Well then, whose is it?"

Bakugou shrugged. "I dunno. It's just kinda _been_ there." He paused. "Is that all?"

"Yeah, sorry to bother you!" Ochako said. "I guess I'll put it back for someone else to find, then."

Bakugou snorted. "You do that," he said. "Now fuck off."

Ochako grinned. "It's not like I was planning on staying! I've gotta get to Tooru's room. Goodnight!"

By the time Bakugou started closing his door, she was already walking away. That was the trick to holding a civil conversation with Bakugou. One had to take control of the interaction and ignore his surliness.

Well, she'd hold onto the mysterious black sweatshirt a while longer. She dropped it off back at her room so she wouldn't have to hang onto it all night.

Ochako knocked a rhythm on Tooru's door a couple minutes later. A chorus of voices greeted her, and she let herself in. Everyone else was already there. Mina and Momo sat with Tooru on her bed, while Tsuyu and Kyouka had claimed spots on the floor. Mina had a vaguely guilty look on her face.

"Sorry I'm late," Ochako said as she took a spot on the floor. "What's up with Mina?"

"Mina here," Momo said, prodding the girl in the side, "tried to get information out of Tooru before you got here."

Ochako gasped in mock offense. "Mina!" she scolded, "You _know_ it's not Girls' Club unless all six of us are present!"

It was the second rule of Girls' Club. There were three rules in total. The first was 'the boys are dumb and aren't as great as they think they are,' and the third was 'we support class B as if they were our own.' They wanted to keep it simple; after all, they weren't a proper club nor a secret society.

"I _know_ ," Mina whined, "but I think I know what it is and I just gotta know if I'm right!"

"Well, I'm here now," Ochako said. "What's up, Tooru?"

Tooru squeaked and her hands flew up to where her face would be. Ochako was sure Tooru was blushing underneath the invisibility. She thought back on the last couple days, and it clicked. Tooru was excitable, but there was only one thing that could get her _this_ worked up.

"Did he do it?" Ochako asked, leaning forward. "Did he finally ask you out?"

Tsuyu pushed her off-balance. "Ochako-chan! Let her tell us herself, ribbit!"

"Oh come on, like it wasn't obvious," Kyouka said with a roll of her eyes. "We've been waiting for this since last year!"

"And you told _me_ off for pushing her for answers!"

"Tooru?" Momo asked, cutting through their chatter, "Are you okay?"

Ochako looked over to see Tooru quivering in her seat. A lump rose in her throat. Shit, what if it hadn't gone well? Had she been rejected? Had she rejected _him?_ That was impossible! She'd been crushing on him for months now!

Then again, she thought ruefully, the others could say the same about her and Deku, but that wasn't happening. Not now, not ever.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't mean–"

"I'm nodding!" Tooru cried. "Yes! He asked me out earlier today! We spent all day together yesterday, so I was hoping, but I didn't know for certain. I was pretty bummed last night, but he found me today and–!"

She squeaked again, and the rest of them squealed.

Ochako found it easy to ignore the regret in her heart about her own doomed and dying crush when her friend was so happy. She would have to live vicariously these next couple years, and she was okay with that.

Her hero work took precedence anyway.

"When is it? What are you doing?" Mina enthused. "Can we help you get ready?"

"Well, we don't have school tomorrow, so we were thinking we'd do something then? I don't know what he has planned – he wouldn't tell me. But I think it's something casual? And of course, but" – Tooru hugged her knees to her chest and her voice fell – "it's not really like I have makeup or hair to do, or anything. You know?"

"Then we'll just have to find you a bomb-ass outfit," Kyouka declared.

"Don't worry, Tooru-chan," Tsuyu said. "Ojirou-chan chose you for you, invisibility and all. Not being able to wear makeup or change your hair for a date isn't going to change that."

"You're right," Tooru said, and Ochako imagined she was smiling. "You guys are the best!"

"You know it!" Mina said, jumping up and disturbing both Momo and Tooru. "Oops, sorry!"

Momo laughed as she fell into Tooru. Mina eyed them, then turned to Ochako and the others on the floor. "Pig pile!" she declared, then dove back onto the bed. Tsuyu was the first to move – frog genes and all – but Ochako and Kyouka weren't far behind her.

What followed was a brief wrestling match as brutal as one could expect from fledgling heroes. Ochako would have a couple bruises in the morning; that was for sure. There was no true winner – they all ended up sprawled across Tooru's bed and each other. Ochako's head rested on Kyouka's belly, and Mina lay across her feet.

She loved these girls, and it pained her.

They lay in silence for a long while. The boys were always so _loud_ , it was nice to relax in the quiet company of others. It was Mina who spoke first.

"I want to change my hero name," she said, gazing up at an outstretched hand. " _Pinky_ is just so …"

"So blah," Kyouka supplied. "Alien Queen was way better."

"Yes!" Mina cried. "Thank you!"

"Midnight was just trying to make sure we don't make any dumb teenage decisions that will affect our careers," Momo said. "But seriously, there's a huge difference between 'Alien Queen' and 'King Explosion Murder.'"

"Bring it up with Aizawa-sensei this time, ribbit," Tsuyu suggested. "He probably won't care if you change it."

Momo snorted. "She's right," she said. "If anyone will let you change it, it'll be Aizawa-sensei."

"And if he asks, I'll just tell him the _Vice President_ told me to talk to him," Mina teased.

"Hey!"

Ochako hummed over Momo's indignation as a thought occurred to her. "Do you guys think Bakugou and Todoroki are going to choose proper hero names this year?"

"They have to, right?" Tooru asked after a moment of silence. "We're all going to start doing proper internships and gaining exposure. At this point, changing it later would be hard."

The others indicated their agreement. "The question is," Momo said, "what are they going to choose?"

"That's really hard," Ochako said, musing upon it. "They're the two most unpredictable guys in our class."

"How unpredictable can they be, ribbit?" Tsuyu asked. "Todoroki-chan will pick something related to temperature and Bakugou-chan will pick something related to explosions, ribbit."

Ochako had an idea. Sitting up, she grinned at her friends. "Do you want to take bets?"

"What would we be betting on?" Kyouka asked.

"We each guess what Bakugou and Todoroki might choose as hero names," Ochako explained. "Those who are closest get … hmm …" She hadn't thought this far.

"The rest of us bake them a cake!" Tooru exclaimed. "Congrats on predicting the unpredictable!"

"As class Vice President, I can't condone this," Momo said, "but I already know what my predictions are."

"Write down your thoughts and give them to me before class starts again," Ochako said. "And no, you're not allowed to ask them beforehand!"

The six of them talked long into the night, but eventually called it quits because of Tooru's date the next day. As Ochako drifted off to sleep on Tooru's floor, her mind drifted once again to her earlier conversation with Deku. She'd mentioned it briefly to the girls, but they hadn't been any more knowledgeable than she was.

Perhaps she'd ask Aizawa when class started again. He'd probably know.

* * *

 _A/N:_

 _Thank you for reading! Just a reminder that you can find me on tumblr (karmahope. tumblr. com) and on the Camp Kacchako Discord (discord. gg/ EwBFYQX)!_

 _You're also welcome to join my Discord server (discord. gg/ E5rT8kH) to talk about this fic or any of my other fics!_


	3. The Rock and the Hard Place

**The Gravity of the Situation  
** Karmahope

There was a certain electric charge in the air the morning class started again, and not just because Kaminari was fooling around. Ochako could almost taste the anticipation, the nervousness, the _excitement_ as they waited for the results of their efforts in the Sports Festival. Which agencies would nominate them? How would this affect their careers?

What if they picked the wrong agencies?

Everyone chattered eagerly amongst themselves, but Ochako didn't feel the same excitement her classmates did. This year mattered in a way last year didn't. If she got a good internship this year and stayed with that agency until she graduated, then she was more likely to have a permanent placement right out of school. She needed that kind of stability, and yet–

And yet her performance in the Sports Festival this year had been far worse than last year. What if she didn't get _any_ nominations? What would she do then? Last year, Aizawa said it wasn't uncommon for interest to peter out into nothingness. What if it happened to her?

She couldn't afford that.

She – quite literally – could not afford that.

"Don't worry, Uraraka."

Ochako looked up. Iida had given up on trying to reign in the class and returned to his seat. He smiled at her, and something loosened in her chest.

"I'm sure you will get several nominations," he said, reading her like a book. "You still made it to the final battle round, which is more than most of our classmates did, and you put up a good fight against Todoroki. Remember Sero last year?"

Ochako smiled. "Yeah," she said, her eyes darting over to the boy in question. Sero leaned eagerly over his desk as he talked with Kirishima, Kaminari, and Jirou. The crushing defeat hadn't crushed him, and she shouldn't let it crush her, either. It was easier said than done. "Poor Sero. He didn't even make it to the battle round this year."

"See?" Iida said. "You're doing just fine. Stop worrying so much." He punctuated his words with his hands.

Ochako sighed. "I guess you're right. You usually are."

Iida made a face, which was so out-of-place on him that Ochako nearly laughed. "Not always," he said, suddenly somber. "But when I'm wrong, I'm usually _very wrong_."

Ochako didn't know what to say to that. Thankfully, she didn't have to figure it out. Aizawa picked that moment to shuffle into the classroom, yellow sleeping bag and all. The class fell silent.

"Good afternoon, class," Aizawa droned. "Now, I'm sure you're all eager to learn about nominations and placements, but please settle down."

Ochako's gaze drifted across the room. Her classmates leaned forward in their seats, hanging on Aizawa's every word in a way they didn't normally. Even Kaminari was invested, which was unusual.

Sitting at the back of the class the way she did, Ochako spent a lot of her time observing her classmates.

"Now, before we get started. Does anyone want to change their hero names? You've been working with the ones you have for a year now, but there is still time to change them. After this year, it will be a little harder."

Aizawa looked to the back corner of the room. Ochako followed his gaze to Bakugou, Todoroki, and Shinsou. Bakugou and Todoroki would pick new names for sure, right? Bakugou had never actually picked a hero name, and Todoroki couldn't use his first name forever. At least, she didn't think he could. Shinsou only transferred into their class this year, so he had yet to pick a hero name at all.

Shinsou stood. "I would like to be known as Echo," he stated without fanfare.

Aizawa nodded as Shinsou sat back down. "Short. Simple. It works. Next?"

Bakugou glared at Aizawa before crossing his arms and looking away. Todoroki seemed… unsure. He stared down at his hands as he subtly wrung them together. Tension mounted as neither of them said a word.

Ochako thought Todoroki had just opened his mouth to say something when Mina's hand shot into the air.

"Aizawa-sensei!" she called, "Is Midnight not coming in to help again this year?"

Aizawa heaved a sigh, breaking his staring contest with the two boys in the back. "You all have had a year to consider hero names. Hopefully, older means more mature, and you know what rides on the identities you choose. I _trust_ you won't be picking ridiculous names again, so I haven't called Midnight in."

"Sir," Mina continued, "I've thought about it, and… Pinky doesn't suit me. I would _really_ like to be Alien Queen."

Aizawa fixed his glare on her, and she shrunk back. "Midnight nixed that name last year, didn't she?"

"Yes, sir. But it's appropriate with my quirk and my appearance, and it suits the vibe I want. Pinky is too juvenile, but it was all I could think of at the time." Mina's tone was surprisingly contrite, and she presented her case with much more decorum than Ochako was used to seeing from her.

Aizawa harrumphed. "I never saw an issue with your preferred name in the first place," he said. "Fine. I'll make the change."

Mina squealed and promptly lost any and all of that aforementioned decorum.

"Don't make me regret it," Aizawa snapped. "Now. Is there _anyone else?_ "

One could cut the tension in the room with a knife. All eyes turned to Todoroki and Bakugou, and they both shifted uneasily under the attention. Ochako hadn't anticipated this, but perhaps she should have.

From her vantage point, she watched Todoroki look to Deku, who nodded. Ochako smiled. She knew how much Todoroki's friendship meant to Deku. It was good to see them supporting one another. How far they had all come in a year!

"Ground Zero."

It wasn't Todoroki who spoke. Ochako's gaze snapped to Bakugou, who still stared petulantly out the window. His shoulders were drawn up, and his fingers tapped the surface of his desk.

"Wow," Kaminari said. "What happened to Blasty Mc'Splode?"

The class chuckled. "Shut up," Bakugou growled. "And–"

Ochako was pretty sure he was about to tell Kaminari and the rest of the class to fuck off, but he caught himself before cursing blatantly in front of Aizawa. This was Bakugou, though, and the message still came through loud and clear.

"Ground Zero," Aizawa said. "The point on the Earth's surface directly above or below an exploding nuclear bomb. How incredibly appropriate. I'll accept it."

Damn. Ochako's guess had been 'Impact.' Oh well.

The tension across Bakugou's shoulders diffused. He sunk back into his seat and turned away from the window, his gaze settling on his desk instead. Ochako stared. It was almost if… Had he been afraid of the class's reaction? Part of her said it was impossible. This was Bakugou Katsuki they were talking about. The other part of her wasn't so sure.

Motion in her peripheral vision caught her attention. Momo wiggled her fingers, a wide grin splashed across her face. It could only mean one thing: Momo won the first half of the bet. Ochako wasn't surprised. Momo _would_ know a term like 'Ground Zero.' She wasn't first in their class for nothing.

All attention turned to Todoroki. He still played with his hands; Ochako watched as he ran his left thumb over his right palm. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before speaking.

"Centigrade."

"Centigrade?" Aizawa asked.

Todoroki nodded, but didn't offer any further explanation. The class burst into muffled chatter, but Ochako sat in shocked silence. 'Centigrade' had been _her_ guess! She won the second half of the bet!

"Quiet, quiet," Aizawa said. "Centigrade is a good name. I will accept that as well. Now. Does anyone _else_ want to change their hero name?"

The rest of the class fell silent.

"Going once… going twice…" When no one spoke up, Aizawa sighed. "Alright. That's that, then."

The class held its collective breath.

"Now," Aizawa said. "What you've all been waiting for: nominations."

Last year, the class lost their shit. This year, they all knew what was riding on the nominations. The excitement was threaded with an undercurrent of anxiety as they waited for Aizawa to hand out the lists.

Aizawa called them up in desk order, which made Ochako fifth. This was good. She didn't know if she could handle the anxiety of waiting any longer. Upon receiving her envelope, the first thing she noticed was that it was heavier than the one she received last year. That was already a good sign, and it set some of her nerves at ease.

She cracked the seal as she walked back to her desk. As she passed Iida, she saw his thick envelope sitting neatly on his desk, unopened.

"You're not even going to look at your nominations?" she asked as she sat down. Aizawa had given up on trying to keep the class quiet, and conversations cropped up around them.

Iida shook his head. "I already know I will be working with Team Idaten. I will be the one inheriting the agency now, so I must familiarize myself with it in the coming years."

Ochako nodded. "That makes sense," she said, then paused. "Are you looking forward to it? Or are you just doing this out of a sense of duty?"

Iida smiled at her. "The sense of duty is there, but Team Idaten helped raise me. They're family, and I cannot think of a better group of people to whom to devote my life."

"Well, that's good," Ochako said, a smile forming on her own face. "It sounds like the perfect placement for you, then."

She stared down at her own envelope in trepidation. It was obvious she had gotten several nominations this year despite her hiccup with Todoroki, but was it enough? She had to be careful about who she picked. She couldn't choose anyone who might make her look like a threat.

"Are you going to open it?" Iida prompted.

Ochako laughed. "Yeah! Yeah, of course!"

Without further ado, she pulled the sheets of paper from the envelope. Her heart in her throat, she skimmed through the list of names. Some she had never heard of, but there were also several big names she hadn't expected to see.

Gunhead wanted her back, of course, as did Ryuukuu. To her surprise, Miruko – _number five hero Miruko_ – wanted her, and… Thirteen wanted her again!

"Good news?" Iida asked.

Ochako became aware of the grin stretching her face. "Yeah," she said. "Good news!"

Aizawa called the class back to order, and Ochako's face fell as Iida turned away from her. Damn, she thought. This was going to be hard choice.

She itched to accept Miruko's offer. If anyone could mentor her in how to make it to the top of a male-dominated industry as a woman, Miruko could, but…

But could Ochako afford to stand out like that?

It was something she was going to have to think about.

* * *

She thought about it a lot.

Internships were the hot topic of discussion that week. In the days following nominations, it was the only thing anyone could talk about. Ochako smiled and nodded and listened, but for the most part didn't participate. She didn't know if she could work up the same enthusiasm the others did.

"I don't know," Deku said one evening as they hung out in the common room. "There are a lot of really good choices here, and it's kind of overwhelming. I only got one nomination last year!"

"Do you have a top pick yet?" Ochako asked, as casually as she could manage.

Deku hummed. "I'm actually thinking about going with Miruko," he said. "Our fighting styles are both leg-based, so I could probably learn a lot from her."

Ochako nodded absently. She could say she'd been thinking about Miruko too, and how cool would it be to intern together? But she didn't. Instead, she asked, "What about you, Todoroki?"

Todoroki looked up from his book. He'd only been half-paying attention to their conversation. "I haven't decided yet," he said after a moment's hesitation. "Like Midoriya said, there are many good choices."

"You're not going with Endeavour again?" Deku asked.

Todoroki leveled his gaze at him and raised an eyebrow. "No."

Ochako nearly laughed.

And that was the end of that particular conversation.

There were others. By the end of the week, Ochako knew most of her classmates' choices. Tsuyu would be working with Ryuukyuu again. Kirishima was staying with Fatgum. Momo was joining Kirishima at Fatgum's agency. Bakugou had chosen Edgeshot, of all heroes. It would be interesting to watch that one play out.

Ochako still needed to pick an agency herself.

She stared down at her blank form into the early hours of the day it was due. She still hadn't picked an agency, but she had at least narrowed it down. As much as she'd love to work with Gunhead or Ryuukyuu again, she knew she should pick someone new to better vary her experience. Of her top contenders, that left only Miruko and Thirteen.

This was one of the most important decisions she would ever make in her life, and yet… She didn't really have a choice, did she?

Interning with Miruko would be a deviation that could make her a threat.

She marveled at how things had changed. Two years ago, she couldn't imagine ever being disappointed at the prospect of interning with Thirteen. Growing up, she knew what she wanted to do. She wanted to help people who needed help. Rescue was just as important as offense, and it was a sector of heroism that was oft overlooked.

She _knew_ rescue was just as dangerous as offense, if not more so. Offensive heroes just needed to focus on the villains, while rescue heroes needed to focus on getting civilians to safety while also being prepared to fight villains if they attacked. It was just as important. It was just as dangerous. It didn't reflect on _her_ negatively in any way.

It was what she wanted to do.

But since the Sports Festival, she'd also wanted to be able to stand with the top students in their class. She wanted to be on equal footing, and she knew each and every one of them would likely become an offensive hero. How could they stand on the same playing field then?

It was fine, she told herself. Thirteen was a well-respected hero. Ochako would get a lot out of this internship, even if part of her yearned for Miruko's success and the opportunity to intern with her best friend.

Fulfilling a childhood dream was never a bad thing.

And thus, it was Thirteen's name on the form she gave to Aizawa the next day. She stopped by the teachers' lounge after class to hand it in.

"Thank you, Uraraka," Aizawa said as he took the form. "Is that all?"

Ochako hesitated, her "Yes, sir" silent on the tip of her tongue. She'd wanted to ask Aizawa about her quirk, right? She'd meant to ask him on their first day back, but forgot about it in all the fuss over internships. Having remembered, she was handing in her form in after school so that she might have the opportunity to ask without her classmates hanging over her shoulders.

The teachers' lounge was empty. Now would be a good time to ask, but now that the moment had come, she felt silly about it.

"Uraraka?" Aizawa asked.

Ochako startled, realizing she'd fallen silent. She couldn't brush this off and simply walk out. Taking a deep breath, she committed.

"Aizawa-sensei," she said, "I did have one question, actually. Um. Well." She hedged. "Have there ever been cases of someone's quirk… not quite being what they thought it was?"

She fell silent under Aizawa's level gaze and fought not to shrink against his dead, piercing stare. It was so much more intense one-on-one than it was when he unleashed it upon the class.

He rubbed his chin. "It's rare," he said at long last, "but it has happened. Uraraka, why do you ask?"

Ochako focused so hard on his words that she almost missed his question. It had happened. _It had._ It wasn't unheard of. That was something!

"O-okay," she stammered, "Cool. I was just curious, is all. Thank you, sir. That's all I had to ask."

She turned to leave, her head spinning. Had Deku been onto something? She would have to redouble her efforts in attempting to find out, knowing that there was a chance. But how?

"Uraraka."

She turned back to see Aizawa watching her. Was his gaze… _softer_ than it usually was?

"Don't get your hopes up," he said gently. "Your quirk is more than enough as it is. You know you're one of our top students in your practical classes."

Emotion welled in the back of Ochako's throat. It was rare to hear a compliment from Aizawa, and even rarer to have it delivered in a manner that wasn't backhanded in the slightest. She admired Aizawa– her entire class did, even if they didn't show it. It was hard not to remember this man nearly gave up his life for them in their first week of class. That sort of thing left a lasting impression on people.

She knew her quirk was enough. She did! She placed third in their entrance exams, and that was before she'd had any formal training whatsoever. But despite that, part of her wasn't satisfied, and the other part of her was ashamed of that.

She bowed. "Yes, sir. I'll keep that in mind."

Her thoughts in turmoil, she left the teachers' lounge. She gazed down at her fingers as she walked. The pads on her fingertips held promise. What if her quirk _was_ more? What then?

What would that mean for her?

She didn't know, but she wanted to find out.

* * *

The girls ambushed her as she stepped into Heights' Alliance.

"Ochako!" Mina shrieked, "You won! What kind of cake do you want? Momo chose chocolate!"

"Can't you at least let her get in the door first, ribbit?" Tsuyu asked.

"Where's the fun in that, though?" Tooru chimed in. "Sorry, Ochako. We can wait if you want."

Ochako smiled. She loved her friends. "It's all right," she said. "How about strawberry? Do we have any strawberry cake mix?"

"We can ask Satou," Kyouka suggested. "I'm sure he has some lying around."

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Ochako asked as she observed the common area. Momo sat at one of the dining tables, watching them with amusement in her eyes. A handful of the boys sat on the couches, also watching them. The black sweatshirt still lay over the back of the couch where she'd placed it a few days earlier.

"What are you making cakes for?" Kaminari asked.

Mina grinned. "We made a bet! Ochako and Momo won, so we're baking cakes for them!"

"What was the bet?" Kirishima asked.

Tsuyu explained the bet as Mina, Tooru, and Kyouka ran off to find Satou. The boys on the couch 'ooh'ed and 'ahh'ed in astonishment.

"You actually managed to guess what they were going to choose?" Sero asked. "That's amazing."

Ochako felt heat rise in her cheeks. "It wasn't that hard," she said. "There are only so many temperature words, and only a few of them make good hero names."

"Did Yaomomo guess Todoroki's as well?" Kirishima asked.

"No, I guessed Bakugou's!" Momo called from across the room. "That one wasn't hard, either!"

"Not hard, they say," Tsuyu said, rolling her eyes good-naturedly. "And yet they're the only ones who guessed them right, ribbit."

"I mean, it's Yaomomo and Uraraka," Kirishima said. "It's not _that_ surprising."

Ochako blushed under her classmates' praise. She didn't think it was a big deal! It was such a silly little bet; she hadn't meant for it to gain this much attention.

"Momo! Ochako! Tsuyu!" Tooru cried as she and Mina returned. Satou and Ojirou trailed behind them. "We got the cake mix!"

"And a couple more spectators, it seems," Momo commented.

"Well, we _are_ going to have enough cake for everyone, ribbit," Tsuyu said.

The girls set to baking, tasking the boys with making sure Ochako and Momo didn't try to help. They also refused to let any of the boys help them bake. Satou was the one exception.

Ochako reveled in the feeling of hanging out with her classmates. It was a far cry from the cold, empty apartment she'd lived in for the first few months of her high school career. She was a year removed from that now, but sometimes the memory washed over her like a bucket of ice water.

"You guys didn't tell us it was baking night!" Deku protested as he and Iida walked into the common area. The cakes were baking, and Ochako knew they'd come to investigate the scent.

"Well, it was originally a _girls'_ baking night," Kyouka said, "but that seems to have gone out the window. Come join us!"

Todoroki shuffled in a few minutes later.

"Dude!" Kirishima yelled. "Uraraka guessed what you were gonna choose as your hero name!"

Todoroki blinked, first at Kirishima, then at Ochako. "Huh," he said. "Congratulations. That's pretty impressive."

Ochako wanted to dig herself a hole and bury herself in it. She settled for burying her face in her arms upon the table and mumbling, "Thanks."

Everyone laughed.

"What if," Tooru said once the cakes were cooling, "we put chocolate frosting on the strawberry cake, and strawberry frosting on the chocolate cake? Momo? Ochako?"

Momo and Ochako exchanged a glance and nodded. "Do it," Momo said.

By the time the cakes were frosted, most of the class had gathered in the common area. Even Shinsou had joined them, watching the proceedings from his chosen corner. The only exception was–

"What the _fuck_ is going on here?"

–Bakugou.

Kirishima opened his mouth to explain to Bakugou as he did to Todoroki, but someone else beat him to it.

"Yaoyorozu and Uraraka guessed what our hero names were going to be," Todoroki said. "Uraraka guessed mine, and it seems Momo guessed yours. The others are baking cakes for them as part of some bet they made."

Bakugou whipped around to stare Kirishima down. "You texted me for this? You made it sound _important_ , dipshit!"

"But this is important!" Kirishima protested. "You gotta join us for class bonding activities sometimes!"

Ochako watched them. What would Bakugou do? The Bakugou of a year ago would stalk right back out again, but this Bakugou hesitated. He glanced at her and Momo, locking eyes with her for a brief moment.

"Fucking… fine," he said. "Whatever. Budge up, Shitty Hair."

Kirishima grinned as Bakugou took a seat beside him. The tension slowly leached from the room.

"Well, now that everyone's here," Tooru said, "who wants cake?"

The cake was delicious, made even more so by the feeling of sweet victory and the joy of sharing it with friends. Ochako laughed as Sero smeared pink frosting across Kirishima's cheek, who in turn left a smudge of dark chocolate across Sero's nose.

Only quick intervention from Iida kept the incident from turning into a full-blown food fight.

Ochako returned to her room that evening happy, content, and full. To Iida's distress, the impromptu cake party had turned into dinner for most of them. He let it slide only after drawing promises from each and every one of them that they would brush their teeth well that night.

"Goodnight, Mina!" Ochako called as the other girl continued down the hall to her own room. "See you tomorrow!"

"Goodnight, Ochako!"

* * *

Ochako's high didn't last long past the moment the door clicked shut behind her.

She loved her classmates. She _loved_ her classmates. They were the most important people in her life, second only to her parents. The idea of hurting them caused her physical pain whenever she thought about it.

She thought about it a lot.

Her smile fell as she crossed her room. Dropping down onto her bed, she stared daggers at her bottom desk drawer. It taunted her, tortured her with the secret it held behind its wooden face.

She sighed. She couldn't put this off, not if she wanted to stay at UA.

Rolling off the bed with a groan, she crawled across the room to her desk. She pulled the drawer open and lifted the old school papers she kept within. With nimble fingers, she lifted its false bottom.

What a con that had been, getting Momo to make a material that matched the desk perfectly. "I want to put a shelf in one of the drawers," Ochako had said, and Momo _believed_ her. Just like that. Getting it cut down to size hadn't been hard, either; Mei didn't even bother asking questions.

Her classmates really needed to be more suspicious from time to time.

Ochako pulled a cell phone from the compartment. It wasn't anything special. The flip-phone model was quite a few years out of date: cheap, hard to trace, and easy to replace when her contact decided it was time. It actually didn't look too much different from her personal phone.

She couldn't decide how to feel about that fact. Was it sad? It might be, but her personal phone was _also_ cheap, which was ultimately more important.

Sitting on the floor, she flipped the phone open and stared at its keys. She didn't have the number saved; it existed only in her memory. She deleted her call history after every call she made. The villains wanted her to be careful, yes, but the stakes were so much higher for her than they were for them should she be caught.

Maybe it was naïve of her, but Ochako still hoped to be a hero when all this was over.

She hadn't agreed to this arrangement out of any sense of malice. The truth was much simpler than that: she had been a naïve, desperate, overconfident teenager.

The fact was, tuition at UA wasn't cheap. Of course it wasn't. UA was a top-rate private high school. Even with the scholarships offered, Ochako wouldn't have been able to pay for the remainder of tuition, fees, uniforms, and the rent for the apartment she'd gotten due to it being cheaper than the train fare back and forth from Mie Prefecture every day.

UA had always been little more than a pipe dream. Back in middle school, she had planned to attend a local public high school. She needed to stay home to help her parents, and she knew they wouldn't be able to afford anything else. As the deadline to make the decision drew closer, however, she grew more and more incapable of ignoring the thing that burned inside her. Part of her yearned for _more_.

She applied to UA on a whim at her parents' encouragement. She wanted a chance to live her fantasies, at least for as long as the entrance exam took. She figured she'd test her quirk in a hero's setting, get a taste of what she could do, then fail the exam and return home.

She never thought she might actually _pass_ the exam, let alone take third place.

After that taste of victory, she found it impossible to settle for a public school back home. She wanted to go to UA. She _needed_ to go to UA. Sure, she'd wanted to be a hero since she was eight years old, but she always thought she could be a minor regional hero. Upon passing the UA entrance exam, she knew she had a chance to do something more. To be _someone_ more.

Despite her passion, she almost let it go anyway. UA was too damn expensive. No matter how she crunched the numbers, even taking into account the scholarships she was offered, it just wasn't feasible with her family's finances.

Her parents refused to hear her decision.

"You wanna go t' UA," her da said. "This 's a huge opportunity for ya, Ochako. Ya can't _not_ go. Yer ma n' I, we'll make 't happen."

"We're s'posed ta provide for you, honey," her ma added. "Not t' other way 'round."

"But–" Ochako tried to protest.

Her da cut her off. "Nonsense," he said. "Accept yer acceptance, Ochako, an' be the hero ya wanna be."

She had cried. She teared up just thinking about it.

If only… if only she had trusted her parents.

A man caught her on her way home on the second day of school.

She had tensed as she realized someone was following her, but didn't dare to look. She would be fine, she thought. She had her quirk and all of… well, two days of hero training. Maybe she _did_ need to be worried.

"Relax," the man said, falling into step beside her. "I'm a friend."

"What do you want?" Ochako had demanded, but her voice shook non-threateningly. "I don't have any money."

The man laughed. "I know," he said casually. "That's why I'm here."

Ochako blinked, sliding a quick glance his way. The hood of his dark sweatshirt obscured most of his face from this angle, but she caught sight of wispy grey hair. "What?"

"We've looked into your family's finances," he said, his voice raspy and unpleasant. He tutted his tongue. "What are you doing at UA, girl? You know you're going to run your family into the ground."

Ochako bristled. "What does that matter to ya?" she asked, her accent slipping in her anger. Still, she trembled. This man was a villain. He had to be.

"My boss has a proposition for you," the man said. "We need eyes inside UA for… reasons. Help us, and we'll pay your tuition fees for all three years of school, and a little more besides. For incentive, of course."

"You– you want me to–"

"To spy for us, yes. We don't need much. Just some locations, dates… that kind of thing. No need for us to know your classmates' darkest secrets, you can keep those."

"I–" _I can't_ , is what she meant to say. She couldn't betray her classmates like that. Could she? She wanted to be a hero! How could she be a hero if she worked with villains?

… How could she be a hero if she had to drop out of UA due to money problems? She'd have to return home, go to a public high school, and earn her hero license later in life. She could do it, but those who waited to obtain their licenses didn't usually make it very far.

And she… she wanted this.

It was very rare that she wanted something for herself.

Besides, _All Might_ was teaching at UA this year! How could some measly villains do any real damage when All Might was always there? Her classmates were also incredibly strong; she'd seen it for herself during the quirk apprehension tests. Surely…

… Surely it couldn't hurt _that_ much?

"If the money isn't enough incentive, we _do_ know where your parents live. One of our guys was there this morning, informing them of this new, generous scholarship you've been offered. I wonder how long their business would survive if they became known for _accidents_ onsite."

Her mouth moved. "Okay," she found herself saying. "Okay, I'll do it."

"Excellent," the man said. "You've made the right choice. Hang tight. We'll be in touch."

And then he was gone.

And then they were in touch.

And now she was here.

Her thumbs hovered over the keys. She didn't want to do this. She _really_ didn't want to do this. At this point, though? She had no choice.

She never had any choice to begin with, not with her parents on the line.

The phone beeped as she inputted the number from memory, each tone an electronic gunshot in the silent room. She was grateful for the fact she didn't share a wall with anyone. Mina lived two rooms away. She didn't know how she could have done this knowing someone was right on the other side of the wall.

The phone rang.

A man on the other end picked up. She didn't know who it was. It wasn't the man who recruited her– Shigaraki, she now knew. It was the same man each time, or at least it had been since All for One was arrested. That was the only time the voice had changed.

"Report."

Ochako took a deep breath. "I know where my classmates are interning," she said succinctly. She would give them what they wanted, but no more than that. "I accepted Thirteen's offer, Midoriya is interning with Miruko, Bakugou is with Edgeshot…"

And so she went, down through all of Class A and the few people from Class B she knew about. Her heart broke with every name she spoke, and yet she kept going.

She had to.

She hated herself for it.

Her report came to a close, and she stifled tears. She couldn't give the villains any reason to doubt her. She _wouldn't_ give the villains any reason to doubt her. She wouldn't endanger her friends any more than she had to.

"Destroy this phone," the man said. "We'll send you another one. Same time, same place. Don't be followed."

He hung up without so much as a "thank you." Ochako sank boneless against her desk. These calls always took a lot out of her, and tonight was no different.

With a heavy sigh, she pushed herself to her feet and walked out onto her balcony. There was one advantage to the man telling her to get rid of the phone. It meant she got to take some of her anger out on the thing she hated so much.

She cracked the phone in two over the balcony rail. Activating her quirk on the pieces, she hurled them up into the stratosphere with all the force she could manage. She wanted to scream, but she never did. She couldn't risk attracting the attention.

It was only a matter of seconds before her quirk released itself. Ochako stared out over the grounds of Heights' Alliance, deep in contemplation. The stars twinkled in the night sky above, and she felt so small, so insignificant. Sometimes, she wished she could float up and join them.

Did anything she do actually matter, or was life just one big cosmic joke?

Only time would tell.

With a shake of her head, she turned and headed back inside. She still had some time before bed. She'd use it in yet another attempt to explore her quirk.

* * *

 _The man stared down at him, his crusty face obscured by that weird-ass hand of his. Katsuki watched him intently. A crowd of villains he couldn't put names to stood behind him, staring back at Katsuki._

" _Everyone here has different circumstances," the man said, "but people… rules… heroes… we're all shackled by them. You too, you should understand."_

 _Katsuki's anger faded. No! No, he wanted to be angry! He wanted to be indignant, and righteous, and unshakeable! He should be… he should be… but he saw the truth in the man's words. Hadn't he been literally shacked by the heroes in front of all of Japan?_

 _He was a force that couldn't be contained, but the heroes would continue to try._

 _His mouth moved, and the words that fell from his lips were not the ones he wanted to speak._

" _Yeah, actually," he found himself saying. "I do."_

Katsuki woke with a start, jolting upright as maniacal laughter echoed in his head. His palms crackled as he gasped for breath. He clenched his fists and punched the mattress, his fingernails digging into his palms. It was a dream. It was just a dream.

It was always just a dream.

That never made it any better.

In the dark stillness of his room, Katsuki breathed as he tried to settle his both his racing heart and his racing thoughts. Over the sound of his breath, he strained to hear any signs of wakefulness from next door. He was met only with silence. Good. He hadn't woken Kirishima.

This time.

 _Fuck_.

Katsuki clutched his sheets. It wasn't always the same dream. How could it be, when he had so much to dream about? The sludge monster, the USJ incident, getting kidnapped by the villains… The list went on. Sometimes, it was a miracle he got any sleep at all.

The dreams never played out in quite the same way. They weren't exact memories. If they were, they might be easier to deal with. Sometimes the scenario played out better than it had in life. Other times, it played out worse.

Katsuki knew one thing for certain: he would die before joining with the villains. If he took a few of them down with him, then he would die happy.

He held a hand out before him. His palm no longer crackled, his quirk no longer threatened to overwhelm him, but it trembled in the dim moonlight. Clenching his fist again, he swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood.

He knew from experience there was no way he was falling asleep again any time soon. Glancing at his alarm clock, he saw it was just past midnight. If he was lucky, the common area would be empty by now, and he could get his glass of water in peace.

Sometimes, on nights like these, standing out on his balcony in the crisp evening air was enough. The quiet emptiness of the night was soothing, and he didn't feel alone with the stars to keep him company. Unfortunately, he was too shaken up at the moment to stand in one place for long.

He reached the ground floor to find the lights on. His heart sank. The common area's lights were motion-sensitive; there was someone else here. He considered turning right back around, but he really _was_ thirsty. He supposed he could put up with one of his dumbass classmates for a couple minutes.

He might even appreciate the distraction.

Not that he'd ever fuckin' tell anyone that.

There was no one in the kitchenette, so Katsuki grabbed a glass out of the cabinets and filled it. The noise caught his classmate's attention.

"Hello?" a feminine voice asked. "Who's there?"

A head of brown hair popped up over the back of the couch, and something in Katsuki relaxed when he realized it was Uraraka down here with him. Of all the classmates he could have encountered this night, Uraraka was not one of the worst.

No, that privilege would go to like, Half n' Half, or fuckin' Deku.

"Oh," Uraraka said. "It's you, Bakugou. Couldn't sleep?"

Katsuki shrugged. He didn't say anything, but it seemed to be enough of an answer for Uraraka. She flashed a small, understanding smile at him before turning back around.

His glass of water in a still-trembling hand, Katsuki considered his options. He could go back up to bed, hide out in the solitude of his darkened room, and inevitably watch the afterimages of his dream play through his head. That was what he usually did on the nights his nightmares failed to waken Kirishima. On the nights they did, the other boy insisted on sitting with him, distracting him until he calmed down.

Katsuki returned the favor when Kirishima's nightmares woke him. It seemed like the right thing to do.

So, he could go back up to bed, or he could sit here in the company of Uraraka for a while. He knew she wouldn't ask questions. She might constantly be on his ass about making nicer with Deku and the rest of their class, but that was the only thing she ever got on him about.

"The fuck are you doing up?" he asked, making his decision.

Uraraka blinked at him as he took a seat on the other couch, but she recovered quickly. She shrugged. "Couldn't sleep," she said simply, adjusting so she sat cross-legged, "and I didn't want to be in my room. I felt kinda" – she scrunched her nose – "trapped."

Katsuki didn't ask. It was a sentiment he understood well enough. He was a little surprised, though. Uraraka always seemed so well-adjusted. Sometimes, he was a little jealous.

She reached out, and it was only then that Katsuki registered the small white ball floating before her. It drifted idly, and she corrected its course.

"What's with the ping pong ball?" he asked.

Uraraka sighed. "I'm trying to work on the control I have over my quirk," she said. "Deku said I might be able to adjust the amount of gravity I take away from an object, or maybe even increase it, so I'm… trying to figure that out."

Katsuki raised his eyebrows. That sounded like she was trying to have a completely different quirk! "How's that going for ya?" he asked.

She rolled her eyes. "What does it look like?" she snapped. "Right now I'm just trying to figure out where the power comes from so that I can maybe change it."

Now, Katsuki didn't really care about what his classmates did. Unless it affected him, he had no reason to care. Caring was just extra effort, and it was an effort he could put toward improving himself instead. But–

"Why?"

Uraraka released her quirk, the ball falling neatly into her outstretched palm. "I want to be stronger," she said simply. "Surely you understand that?"

Katsuki bristled at the challenge in her voice. It was something he understood far too well, and she knew that. "We all want to be stronger," he said. "What makes you so fuckin' special?"

"God, do you have to be so ornery _all_ the time?" she asked. "When did I ever imply I was special? My fight with Todoroki at the Sports Festival just pissed me off, is all."

Katsuki snorted. "Welcome to the club."

"Yeah, well," she said, her eyes fixed on the ping pong ball. "I thought I was gonna do better this year than I did last year – when I nearly kicked your ass – and then I didn't. And that was frustrating. I _really_ needed to impress the scouts."

"You landed an internship with fuckin'... Thirteen, right?" Katsuki was beginning to regret sitting down for this conversation. What was he supposed to do, commiserate? Comfort her? He shuddered at the thought.

"I mean… yeah, I did," Uraraka said. She looked like she was going to say more, but she paused. "You picked Edgeshot. Why?"

God, Katsuki did _not_ want to talk about himself. "He's different," he said. "I need a range of experiences." He didn't mention that Aizawa had pulled him aside before lunch one day.

"He'll correct some of your shortcomings, kid," he had said. "If you want to make it as a top hero, you'll accept his offer."

If anyone else aside from maybe All Might had said that, Katsuki would have told them to go fuck themselves. It was a close thing as it was.

Uraraka nodded. "He'll be good for you."

"Fuck off."

She laughed, and Katsuki just got angrier. "Sorry," she said. "Sorry. I really wasn't trying to make fun of you or anything. I'm happy for you!"

Katsuki sighed. "Fine," he said. "Whatever."

They fell into silence. Uraraka activated her quirk on the ping pong ball once more and left it to drift before them once again. She kept her eyes trained upon it, and Katsuki watched her, inexplicably fascinated.

His nightmare was all but forgotten.

"You know, I thought I wanted to become a hero just to help others, especially my parents," Uraraka said after several minutes. "I always figured I'd just go into rescue, since that was what my quirk was suited for. I never cared about the hero rankings, not really. But–"

She glanced over at him then. There was a steely glint in her eyes he remembered all too well from last year's Sports Festival and the few times he'd fought her in class since then.

"–But being beaten by Todoroki like that was infuriating," she continued. "I want more. I can _do_ more, and I want to be able to compete with you and Deku and Todoroki and Iida right there at the top!"

Katsuki regarded her lazily. Now that the adrenaline from his nightmare had left his system, he was starting to feel the late hour. Taking a sip from his glass, he reached out and plucked the ping pong ball from the air.

Uraraka released her quirk, and the ball settled into his fingers.

"Then do so," he said, flicking it back at her. "Plus fuckin' ultra and all that, right?"

She barely caught it before it hit her face. She blinked as she stared back at him, clearly thrown off-balance. He watched as the slack expression on her face tightened into a grin.

A thrill ran down his spine.

"Right!"

She lifted the ball into the air once more, careful not to give it too much external force in any one direction. Breathing deeply, her fingers twitched as she focused on her connection with it.

"Oh!"

Her soft gasp startled him. Katsuki watched in amazement as the ball, which had been drifting with a downwards trajectory, changed course to float upward. It hit the ceiling and stopped.

"I– I did it!" Uraraka cried. "I actually did it!"

Katsuki gaped, but pulled himself together. "Congratulations," he said gruffly. "I'm going back to bed."

Uraraka laughed. "You do that. I'll probably do the same soon. Goodnight!"

It was a long while before Katsuki actually fell asleep again.

* * *

 _A/N:_

 _Thank you for reading! Just a reminder that you can find me on tumblr (karmahope. tumblr. com), on the Camp Kacchako Discord (discord. gg/ EwBFYQX), and on Twitter (twitter karmahope2713)!_

 _You're also welcome to join my Discord server (discord. gg/ E5rT8kH) to talk about this fic or any of my other fics!_


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